Music therapy in early childhood is well-researched and evidence-based, with both qualitative and quantitative research demonstrating the value of music therapy to support social and emotional development, cognition, communication, and physical coordination and development. Music therapy research with very young children occurs in various settings such as community groups, family dyads, and hospitals. The qualitative data - mainly interviews and observations - is most likely to involve parents, music therapists, or institution staff.
However, the research in general early childhood spheres provides more scope for collecting qualitative data. Early childhood researchers are more likely to interview children directly - even those under the age of 6. The Mosaic approach is an applied, participatory ethnographic approach, developed in London by Clark and Moss, early childhood educators and researchers who designed this method of gaining understanding of young children’s daily lives and experiences. Children are regarded as coresearchers, and the method involves task-based approaches to data collection, such as inviting children to take photographs of significant aspects of their surroundings, or inviting children to show visitors around their preschool room. The Mosaic approach to early childhood research combines different voices, perspectives and lived experiences to ‘quilt together’ a thorough and multi-faceted representation of the daily lives of preschool-aged children in their early childhood service. While some aspects rely on verbal interaction, such as child conferencing and interviewing, the Mosaic approach does not rely primarily on verbal and written data, which is beneficial to research in early childhood, where language skills are developing and interviews may not be an authentic representation of views. Rather, this approach favours visual representation as data, and places some importance of photography as a medium for expressing the perspective of the children.
This PechaKucha demonstrates the use of the Mosaic approach to data collection within my PhD research with The University of Melbourne, considering the role of a music therapist within an early childhood centre in a marginalised community. I will demonstrate some of the data collected thus far and how it has informed my approach to ethnographic research. I will discuss how the Mosaic approach can inform music therapy research with very young children and practically explore exactly how (and how not!) to interview children under 6 - whether in a research study, a feedback form, or generally to gain the valuable perspectives of our clients.